Meeting old-timers and leaders in the party and the state government seemed to be on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda as he visited Gujarat at the end of a week that also marked Labh Pancham, the fifth day of the Gujarati New Year.Modi landed in Ahmedabad late Friday. Among the few people he met at the airport were former Union minister Harin Pathak, former MLAs Suresh Patel, Bharat Barot and Gitaben Patel, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and his deputy Harsh Sanghavi.Pathak, based in Maninagar area of Ahmedabad, was Minister of State for Defence in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government; Suresh Patel won from the Maninagar assembly constituency, succeeding Modi in 2014 when the won the parliamentary elections and became the PM. Suresh Patel remained the Maninagar MLA till 2022.Barot was an MLA from the Dariapur-Kazipur constituency and Gitaben Patel from the Sabarmati constituency.Modi then headed to the Lok Bhavan in Gandhinagar, where Governor Acharya Devvrat welcomed him. There, he had dinner with the CM and his cabinet and party leaders.While speculations were rife that the PM would set the agenda for the assembly elections due next year, sources said it was a meeting just for Diwali and the Gujarati New Year that set in on November 10.“The meeting was not held with any agenda. It was held purely on a lighter note on the occasion of Diwali and the new year. And the PM reminisced about some old memories in Gujarat with all of us,” said a source.Story continues below this adApart from the cabinet ministers, the meeting was also attended by state party president Jagdish Vishwakarma, party’s State Secretary (Organisation) Ratnakar, Joint General Secretary (Organisation) Arun Binnadi and four general secretaries.Another source said, “The PM met all over dinner. There was no one-to-one meeting. He spent around 1.5 to 2 hours with us over dinner. All ministers were present except Parshottambhai Solanki (Minister of State for Fisheries), who had some health issues.”Pathak, who did not attend the dinner, said he was on his way to Delhi to meet former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani. He headed to the departure terminal soon after meeting Modi on Friday evening (November 13).“There was no other discussion. He just asked about my daughters and granddaughters. I have not met Dada (Advani), who turned 100 years (on November 8). So, I am heading to Delhi and did not go for the dinner,” Pathak told The Indian Express.According to another source, the dinner was “a courtesy meeting held on the occasion of Diwali. All of us sat together. And the PM discussed general issues over dinner. There was no discussion on politics at all.”Story continues below this adReacting to Modi’s short visit to Gujarat, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amit Chavda told reporters in Rajkot on Saturday that the PM came to “settle the differences between the local leaders”.“There is infighting in the BJP; there is no leader in Gujarat who can manage and control them. Narendra Modiji and Amit Shahji have sidelined powerful leaders and put incompetent people forward… Modiji’s intervention can, may be, manage the party but not the situation in Gujarat, which has become anarchic”.PM Modi arrived at Lok Bhavan around 8.30 pm on Friday and left around 12 noon on Saturday.It is to be noted that earlier, the PM was scheduled to offer prayers at the temple of Goddess Ambaji in Banaskantha district, on Saturday. However, the visit was ‘postponed’ owing to “administrative reasons”.Story continues below this adDeputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi had, on Friday, said that the PM postponed his visit to the Ambaji temple due to the heavy rush of devotees on the occasion of Labh Pacham.“The PM decided in the interest of devotees so that they do not face any difficulties and maximum people can offer their prayers. In the coming days, the PM will come again to pray before Goddess Amba,” Sanghavi said.